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When I was living in Nicaragua, I worked at a small university that was a forty-five minute bus ride away from my house.
Every day, I would shut down my computer, say goodbye to my co-workers and catch the 119 back home. If I was lucky, I would get a seat, if not, I would grab onto the handrail above me and guess which seated bus rider was most likely to vacate their seat next.
The bus dropp...

I am intrigued with the ongoing discussion over the future of the Nobles County Library. As a professor and an author, I find myself both using and making contributions to libraries as part of my everyday job. Ive also, for better or worse, spent a lot of time in libraries: 4-8 hours a day during grad school.
Im not a civil engineer or a city planner, so Ill withhold my amateur opinion on the ...

10:00 pm - DISASTER RELIEF BILL GOING TO GOVERNOR
The Senate has taken up the revised disaster relief bill and Senator Weber has ushered it to passage. The next stop is the Governor for signature.
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10:00 pm - two hours remaining
With the passage of a bonding bill in the House,...

As many know, my favorite sport in the world is hockey. I love to watch it, play it and talk about it with anyone who shares my interest.
So it isnt hard to see why I have come to enjoy covering area hockey games more than any other sport played in this area.
However, throughout the many games I have covered this season, I have come to notice one thing that has me a little worried about the int...

Yesterday, I attended the Worthington stop of the Twins Winter Caravan. This particular visit featured Dick Bremer, new bench coach Terry Steinbach, Ron Gardenhire, and Brain Dozier. For about an hour, they took turnsansweringquestions posed byattendees. The answers I was mostly interested in were those from Gardy about the direction of the team. The Twins manager, as always, was honest andhumo...

This month marks the anniversary of one of the most horrific events in Midwest history, though after 125 years quite a few people don't remember it at all: the Children's Blizzard of 1888, which received its name because so many of its 250-500 fatalities were children.
Many factors combined to cause that death toll, which was horrific even in a time without cellphones and modern weather warnin...

THE BLESSING OF THORNS
Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop door. Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease.
During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As if that weren't enough, her hu...

Let me start out by sayingthanks toour supporters and to our core group of workers in the Senate campaign.Janice and Ihave met a good group of people and we cannot express enough the appreciation we have for them and all their hard work. We tried to run a positive campaign focused on issues, but we still failed to getour message across to the residents of District 22. For that, Iam sorry. We f...

This is what I have learned from my campaign for State Legislator in District 22B.
I am not a politician. I am a citizen who believes that you cant stay on the sidelines forever. I believe in paying it forward and repaying the good fortune I have experienced. Im untrained in the arts of avoiding questions and pivoting to better talking points. What I do know is how to analyze a problem and wor...

All of you who've read my posts are awesome. Thank you for following along. While I'm sad to see this journey end, I'm excited with anticipation because this was just my first try. I'll be writing many more travel-inspired pieces as I explore new parts of the world. (Next on my radar is East Africa.) Also, this blog was just a rough draft. A more complete, polished effort is being tailored pres...

It can be a challenge cooking for two. When I made a big batch of Baked Garden Vegetable Stack the other day, I had a lot of tender vegetables left over. I turned them into creamy soup in 30 minutes.
The thin slices of potatoes and tender ribbons of cabbage seemed to demand caraway, that distinctly flavored seed typically found in rye bread. I used to love ladling my mom's sauerkraut dotted ...

Photos from dinner on our final night in New York City. Big thanks to @NoReservationsfor the last-minute reservation and Chef@EricRipertfor the amazing food. It was a meal we won't forget for some time.
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When I woke up this morning, I did not expect to find myself. No, my lovely reader, thats not a typo. Because that - finding myself - is exactly what happened. Where was I hiding, did you ask? Not in my closet, but behind contentment. Behind peace and quiet. To put it in Africa terms everyone can appreciate, it was much like that moment in the Lion King (original majestic version, not the pollu...